Adobe has recently been doing a few things in preparation for the upcoming (2nd half 2007) release of Director. A number of people received an email message that contained a link to a survey where Adobe was curious how people were using Director.
In a recent eLearning Guild email message the following was posted:
Help Shape the Future Development of Educational Applications and Serious Games: Would you like to help shape the direction of a new educational content and application development product from Adobe? StrategyOne will be conducting an online focus group for Adobe to talk about an exciting new product, and we want to hear your opinions and ideas. It will take place on Tuesday July 24th from 8:00 pm to 9:30 pm Eastern time. In appreciation of your participation in the focus group, you will receive a cash incentive of $50. If you are interested in participating, please take a moment…
It turns out a good portion of this forum was dedicated to determining how the new version of Director should be marketed.
All I know is I can’t wait for a version that runs on my MacIntel that I’ve had for a year.
July 26th, 2007
A press release from MTV Networks’ Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group says they have committed $100 million to its online casual games business. From the press release:
Shockwave: Shockwave will become the games destination for families. Increased focus this fall on www.shockwave.com will be on the creation of innovative applications which are both fun for the user and an opportunity for prominent integrated advertising. The first new application to launch is Jigsaw Video. In addition, Shockwave will be more closely linked with family-targeted brands within Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group, like Nick-at- Nite television, to give advertisers the ability to promote their messaging across multiple platforms. Shockwave will also increase its publishing of downloadable games with Carrie the Caregiver Episode 2: Preschool, scheduled to come out later this year.
Jigsaw Video and Carrie the Caregiver (both the latter done with Director) were developed by Rob Gordon over at Article 19. I had the chance to work with Rob a few years ago, and I’m sure some of you have seen him on various mailing lists. I certainly hope he gets a slice of the pie since his games were featured. 🙂
July 19th, 2007
I noticed that The eLearning Guild will be running a two day long online forum on July 19 and 20. It is titled Strategies and Techniques for Building Immersive Learning Simulations (ILS). One of the sessions is titled Building Immersive Learning Simulations Using Flash and Director by Jennifer Jesse and Mike Drebenstedt of D10 Interactive.
…This session on immersive learning will discuss techniques for creating ILEs using Flash and Director. You will see examples of Flash and Director-based ILS as well as examine World of Warcraft, the most successful massively multiplayer online role playing game to date. You will examine the 8 Factors of Immersion that are used in this game and you will see examples of how you can replicate the functionality using Flash and Director. You will see development techniques and platforms used to create multiplayer-task-based gaming, Web-based chat, virtual environments, pedagogical agents, and database integration to store user data and integrate with learning management systems…
I saw this presentation in person earlier this spring and really enjoyed it.
July 8th, 2007